When Dash was 9 months old, we introduced him to technology. (I've been meaning to post for a while on this). I know that the American Academy of Pediatrics frowns upon screen time for kids under age 2, but we couldn't resist. It's not like we're sticking him in front of the tube. Dash is certainly not going to turn out like this kid (I love this photo, although it is kind of sad).

We had an extra Samsung Netbook laying around the house, so Preston designated it "Dashiell's First Computer." We set him on the rug and let him have at the keyboard, and boy, did he love it. He clinked away at the keys for a full 10 minutes. He was so happy:

Preston and I were actually able to eat our dinner at the same time, like civilized adults! :) I'm sure Dash would have loved a plain old $5 keyboard, but Preston also loaded up a kid's game. Now every time Dash presses a letter, a corresponding animal or object will appear on the screen. Pressing "C" for example might bring up a cow that moos.

The other night I arrived home to find Dash on his daddy's lap -- playing with his iPod Touch (yes, he also now has an iPod Touch) as Preston pounded away on his laptop. Dashiell appeared to be concentrating just as hard as Preston was. Like father, like son!

 

 

 

Preston, Dash and I went out to dinner tonight at "Dr. Sushi & BBQ" -- a relatively new Korean and Japanese restaurant just a 5-minute drive from our place. Dash, being the squirrelly almost 1-year-old that he is, made quick work of the napkins by swiping them onto the floor. He squealed at times, and made his favorite sound -- da-da-da-da-da-da. We were worried he might be disturbing other diners. But all and all, he was such a good little boy, entertaining himself with a pair of chopsticks.

We understand that dinner in a restaurant can be boring for a baby, so that's also why we didn't mind so much when he began sucking the edge of the table. (I'd already wiped it down with a santizing wipe). At some point during the dinner, I looked over to see a series of distinct scratch marks on the table, which was wooden but stained an elegant black. Then suddenly, in horror, I realized what they were from! Dash's teeth had scraped off the dark stain, exposing the light color of wood underneath. It was obvious that he (or should I say we, as parents) were responsible for the damage, because the scratches were organized in pairs, and lined up perfectly with spacing of his top and bottom teeth (all four of them).

To make it worse, we'd felt so proud of Dash. The wait staff oooo'd and ahhh'd over him. Our server even brought him a complimentary bowl of miso with baby-sized bits of tofu in it -- complete with a baby-sized spoon. It was Dash's first tofu, and he seemed to like it. ...It had been fun being the cute little family that others had been admiring, out to dinner on a beautiful spring evening.

We debated for a few minutes about slinking out of the restaurant without saying a word. In a moment of panic, I also debated whether to grab one of the black markers the staff had handed us to fill out sushi orders. There was a chance that I could dab out the scratches with marker, and no one would be the wiser. ...In the end, yes, we did the right thing. We told our server. We said we'd pay for the repairs. The owner, Mrs. Kim, was very gracious. Our server told us she said not to worry about it, and things like this happen. 

I still feel pretty bad about it. As we walked back to the car, Preston and I chuckled about how many more experiences we'd have like this as novice parents. Note to ourselves: Baby's teeth are strong, and destructive!

 

At 10 1/2 months, Dash's appetite has taken off. Our first inkling was from daycare earlier this week, when he devoured a record five bottles from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. A few mornings later, he devoured three bottles of milk before even arriving at daycare. That's triple the usual amount!

Preston and I get a chuckle out of how single-minded our boy is lately. When we set him on the floor, he'll bypass all the toys we've set out for him and roll over to his bottle, even if it's empty. He's also learned to hold his bottle up on his own. Hunger is a great motivator!

But now I am worried that I'm not going to make it to my goal: A year of breast feeding. Stop reading now if this is TMI, but I've been pumping about 30 ounces a day. Dash is now drinking well over 40 ounces a day. So he's been burning through his freezer reserves at the rate of one bag per a day. At this rate, he'll be out of frozen milk in three weeks. We'll need to start supplementing his diet with formula until he reaches the year-mark. At that point, it's officially OK for him to drink cow's milk. 

Here's a photo of Dash sitting at his spot at the table:

He's still getting about 99 percent of his calories from me. But Plan B is to hope that he takes a liking to solid foods, soon -- so he stops drinking so much breast milk. Dash's "favorite" food is baby oatmeal, and he only seems to tolerate it some days. He briefly took a liking to egg yolks, but he now lets us know they are on the outs: He closes his eyes, digs his chin into his chest, vigorously shakes his head back and forth and makes an eye-yeye eye-yeye noise -- just in case we didn't get that he really doesn't want them. The same goes with almost every other food we've tried (and re-introduced again and again, in hopes he changes his mind): sweet potatoes, bananas, peas, black beans, pinto beans, white rice, brown rice, yellow rice, chicken breast, salmon, corned beef (Preston gave him some while I wasn't watching), butternut squash, avocado, pears, apples, mangos, prunes, cooked carrots, dehydrated yogurt melts, Yum-Yum crackers and Cherrios. 

Today I gave him four foods, with some success: one-third of a banana, oatmeal, mango and chicken. But he still sucked down 45 ounces of milk. Ah well, I'm not giving up on Plan B yet.

As a side note, Dash's appetite is a sure sign that he's feeling good. He hasn't been sick for at least a week, and that's a rarity since we started daycare in January. He's also been sleeping through the night again. It has been absolutely wonderful for all of us to get a full night's sleep! 

 

 

Earlier this month, Dashiell turned nine months old. I stopped to reminisce about how our little boy has now spent more time outside the womb than in. In one sense, nine months have flown by. In another sense, it seems like Dash long has been around. He's docked so nicely into our lives.

One of the things that has been so endearing about Dashiell is his gummy smile. He smiles dozens of times in a day -- and those perfect baby gums melt my heart. Well, you guessed it: Two weeks ago, his first tooth burst through. Although most babies get their bottom two teeth first, his first tooth is his upper left one. Then a few days ago, his bottom left tooth burst through. 

Dash is a fairly good sleeper. About every fifth night he sleeps the entire night through -- sometimes 12 hours straight. The other nights, he typically sleeps about nine hours straight, then, like clockwork, he awakes between 4:30 a.m. and 4:45 a.m. But can I really complain that the kid is waking up after nine hours? After a change of diaper, a bottle and some rocking, he's back to sleep after about 45 minutes. He usually sleeps until at least 7 a.m. (Note: I'm in charge of night-time duties, since Preston has a lot of trouble falling back to sleep once woken in the middle of the night. Me, I can fall back to sleep in 60 seconds.)

With the exception of naps (when he's so tired he dozes off to sleep on his own) Dash refuses to go to sleep without being rocked. I know we should try to sleep-train him, but I always find an excuse not to. I'm such a softy. Last month, it was his cold and fever. Earlier this month, I decided I was going to put my foot down, but after he cried for two hours straight in the middle of the night, I finally gave in because I was exhausted and had to go to work in a few hours. I picked him up and -- just like that -- the kid was snoring. Literally, it took two minutes.

Now that he's teething, I'm also reluctant to try to sleep train him.

Speaking of sleep, I'm also a little embarrassed to say that it was just last month that I finally moved from Dash's room back into our bedroom. At first, sleeping in Dash's room was the obvious choice because he needed me so often throughout the night. But as the months past, I stayed in his room because he refused to sleep in his crib, and we couldn't let him sleep alone in the queen-sized bed because we worried he might roll onto the floor. (Dash sleeping in our room wasn't really an option, since Preston can be a noisy sleeper).

Dash started sleeping in his crib last month, and so yup, it was time for me to say good-bye to the sweet sound of his breathing at night. I kid you not, it was like listening to the ocean. But now that I've readjusted to the big kids' room, I'm happy to be back.

Dash's nine-month visit with Dr. Schunk went fairly well. The highlights:

-- Dash is tall, at 29.5 inches. That puts him in the 88th percentile for height.

-- At 19 pounds, 13 ounces, he's in the 44th percentile for weight. His weight has been falling down the charts. At his two-month check-up, he was in the 87th percentile. At six months, he was in the 71st percentile. I attribute some of this to his difficult adjustment to day care and his miserable January cold and fever.

-- Dash still isn't a fan of solid foods. He immediately spits almost everything out: sweet potatoes, butternut squash, peas, apples, pears, mangos, pinto beans, carrots, Yum Yum crackers. However, we have had some success with avocados and rice cereal. Last week, his daycare teacher got him to eat half a banana! Preston made a funny comment at dinner last night: Dash will put anything in his mouth as long as it's inedible. If it's edible, he wants nothing to do with it.

-- He's still lagging behind on most developmental fronts, although the doctor said to be fair, the developmental milestones really should be given at 10 months. We filled out a questionnaire that asked us dozens of questions, such as whether Dash can pick up a string using just his pointer finger and thumb, or whether Dash repeats sounds after we make them. The answer to both those questions is no. But Dash is a big "talker," which the doctor said is good. And he is rolling around the house like a maniac these days. So even if he isn't crawling yet, he's doing what works for him.

 

I've been meeting to post about this for a while: When Dash reached the 7-month mark, we knew we absolutely couldn't delay any longer. It was time for a new car seat. Even though the manufacturer of his infant car seat said the seat was good for babies up to 22 pounds (Dash was 18 pounds at the time), he was too tall to safely use it. 

I get a chuckle out of looking at how he has grown. Here's a photo of him the day before we left Good Samaritan. He was three days old and about 7 pounds. The seat is soooo spacious!

Here's a photo of him on New Year's Eve, the day we passed along the car seat to friends. (By the way, the car seat was generously made its way into our possession by friends. Thanks, again, K & J!) Dash barely fits into it! And finally, he's a picture of Dashiell in his new, big-boy car seat. The Sunshine Radian is supposed to hold children who weigh up to 70 pounds!

 

It's been a while since we posted. I am glad to report that everybody is healthy and thriving again. We are starting to dig ourselves out from our backlog of to-do items, which includes posting pictures! Here is the next collection in the series:

December 2011: Through seven-month birthday

The last week has certainly been miserable for all of us. Not only was Dash sick, Aimee came down with flu-like symptoms. I stayed healthy, and was left to care for them both. But Dash's fever has broken and he is on the mend! Aimee, too, is feeling perkier. Thanks to everyone for their comments, emails and phone calls. To celebrate, here is a baby montage (showing the three of us, at approximately the same age). I have been meaning to assemble it ever since Dash's birth:

Here are some notable firsts in the past couple of weeks:

• His first fever -- up to 103. (Aimee wants me to note that we did get a reading of 104.5, but that was probably a bad reading because I had put a hat on him while outside. It likely heated the surface of his skin. Nonetheless, it prompted a frantic call to the doctor).
• First time sent home sick from day care (pink eye).
• First time we had to take sick time from work to care for a sick baby (three days in one week)!
• He's now rolling over, front to back and back to front. We aren't sure when it happened, but one day we put him on his back, and then he was on his stomach when we returned. It's amazing how often he now flips back and forth, especially given that he couldn't do it at all only a week or two ago! He is able to roll around quite a bit and is using that as a form of one-dimensional locomotion.
• Dash is now sitting up at the table with us in a little chair that attaches to the table. He loves it! It feels great to have him be part of our dinner time.
• First time Dash has lost weight since his first week after birth. We're concerned about this. We're going to continue to work with day care to get him to eat more during the day, and increase the frequency at which we give him solid foods (which he still generally grimaces at and spits out).

Pictures of all of this stuff when I get caught up on the photos!

 

Poor Dash. Two and a half weeks of day care have finally taken their toll.

The stresses of day care began to show the first week. He downed half the milk he usually does during the day. He napped about one third the amount of time as usual. But at least he didn't immediately come down with a virus, as I thought he would.

Then came the second week, and three times Dash spit up in the middle of the night. The spit up -- or should I say vomit -- came shooting out of his mouth in copious amounts. It was very disturbing. And messy. And Dash didn't like laying in (very acidic smelling) vomit even for a few seconds -- the contents of his stomach pooling on the blanket below his bald head. Changing the blankets and the sheets was exhausting.

That brings us to Week 3. Dash seems to have come down with a cold. This, I'm sure, explains why he's been waking up 6-10 times every night, wanting milk or just some bouncing on the pilates ball. At times, however, he has been inconsolable.

I also thought the cold explained the goop in the corner of his eye. But by the end of the day Monday, both his eyes were oozing major amounts of light green goop. Dash's day care called to say I would need to pick him up: He had pink eye. I walked through the doors to find his eye lashes saturated with mucus. His eyelids were puffy, and his face appeared a bit swollen. It almost looked like he had an allergic reaction to a bee sting. He didn't smile at me. So sad. Usually, he beams when he sees me.

So we picked up a prescription for antibiotic ointment at Safeway that evening. (You should have seen the looks of strangers when they laid eyes on Dash's miserable and swollen face!)  The ointment has worked wonders. He slept great the first night -- 13 hours and only one brief wake up!

I thought we were over the hump. But last night, he started waking up crying every half an hour. It soon became obvious that he had a fever. The highest reading we got was 99.5, which didn't seem accurate because he felt like he was burning up. So I gave him some Children's Tylenol. But the package didn't have a dosage for babies as young and as light as Dash is, so there I was at 4 a.m. trying to divide milliliters by pounds, and come up with the correct amount. (Our doctor had said at Dash's four-month check-up that Children's Tylenol was OK. We'd just have to give him a smaller dose. Thankfully, the advice nurse this morning verified that my math was correct).

When Dash awoke for the day, his fever appeared to be gone. I called day care, and the staff said to bring him in. They measured his temperature at 101.4. The fever was back! So it was back home again -- a 20-minute walk through a torrential rain storm. Good thing our stroller's rain cover kept Dash dry. I was soaked. 

Dash was not himself today. He hardly smiled. He was burning up one moment, then shivering the next. He ate only about half of what he usually does. All my research on the Internet said to give it some time, and he'd likely get better. But I decided to bring him in to the doctor's office this afternoon. I'm sure glad I did.

The bad news: I've learned that Dash weighs an ounce less than he did seven weeks ago, at his six-month check-up. Awk! His thrush is back. (This is the third time he's had it). And the doctor said he's not sure what virus or bacteria is plaguing Dash now, but it's definitely more than the common cold. The doc swabbed Dash's throat, and is having the sample tested for strep.

From the way the doctor was talking, it doesn't sound like Dash has strep. But the doctor said he expects Dash's fever to top out at about 102, and be present for the next two days. Ugh. Poor little guy. At least the baby Advil that the doctor gave us seems to be working well. This evening, Dash had a burst of energy. He was rolling around on the floor with his stuffed monkey and other toys. And he laughed a lot.

Even so, he still is pretty congested. Preston is feeding him right now, and he can't breath through his nose, so he'll suck a few times from the bottle, then turn his head to gasp in some air. Preston is trying to put a positive spin on this. "You're like a swimmer! Down for five strokes, and then a breath!" he said, in the most upbeat tone.

I keep reminding myself that we'll get through this. All parents go through some version of this. And I knew this day would come. I'm just glad Preston and I are still healthy. And I keep thinking ahead to next week, when surely (cross your fingers) Dash will have recovered.

 

 

 

Let me start off this post by sharing these great photos of Dash and his daddy. I think they say it all:

(This is Preston smothering Dashiell in kisses):

For all of November and December, Preston stayed at least four days a week at home with Dashiell. I saw the bond between them grow. Dashiell is such a daddy's boy now. Often, when Preston enters the room, Dashiell cranes his neck so he can see him. Dash's entire face brightens, and he smiles and giggles with such glee.

Of course, I'm very happy for Preston. I used to joke with him that he was now "No. 1" and I was clearly "No. 2." A small piece of me missed the Dash who let me know that I was the absolute coolest person in the world. Preston points out that Dash still does smile at me a lot. Sometimes we debate about who he smiles more at. And then we give up, because it's such a silly argument.

Dash started day care on Jan. 3. It was much easier for me to leave Dash at home with Preston than with strangers at day care. When I left him there the first few days, the guilt really set in. Sure, plenty of other parents have put their kids in day care, and I've been just fine with that. There was no judging on my part. At all. People have to work -- for both the money and the mental stimulation.

But my view of day care is different with Dash because he's my baby. I want to be spending my days with him. I hate leaving him with people who are paid to watch him. He has no idea why I'm dropping him off for eight or nine hours each day in a giant room with 15 other babies, one or two babies in particular who seem to be shrilly crying every time I am there (I won't name names). It is loud! Sometimes almost all the babies are crying at the same time. The day-care employees call this "the chorus." OK, I have to chuckle at that description. 

The ratio of our day care is about one employee for every 3.5 babies. That's better than the state average of one employee for every four babies. That makes me feel a tad bit better. Also, we thought this day care was more with-it than some of the other day cares we'd seen. Every day, Dash's "teacher" lays out an agenda focusing on mental and physical child development. Today, the activities included pointing out that we all have two eyes and one nose, playing with toys that make noise and focusing on crawling (although that's still a long way's off for Dash). 

I also feel a little better about leaving Dash in day care because he is such a social guy. He genuinely likes looking at other babies. 

I'll leave you with one last photo of Dash and his daddy, taken on New Year's Day. Daddy's arms = a pretty darn good place to be!